Method of producing insulating panels

ABSTRACT

A method for producing insulated panels of a honeycomb structure surrounded by a frame, in which the panels are continuously fed below a discharging device which fills the honeycomb with polystyrene, granular or ground waste material having insulating properties. Before or after filling, the honeycomb structure may be closed by a subjacent cover board or sheet, and an upper cover board or sheet is applied after filling, the upper and lower cover boards or sheets being adhesively bonded to the honeycomb.

United States Patent Bentfors 51 Mar. 21, 1972 [54] METHOD OF PRODUCINGINSULATING PANELS [72] Inventor: Karl Waldemar Bentfors, Utsiktsvagen14,

Motala, Sweden [22] Filed: June 9,1969

[21] Appl.No.: 831,508

3,170,827 2/1965 Voelker ..l6l/l68 X 3,099,518 7/1963 Wetzler ..l56/79 X3,249,659 5/1966 Voelker..... ..l56/79 X Primary Examiner-Benjamin A.Borchelt Assistant ExaminerG. E. Montone Attorney-Young & Thompson 5 7]ABSTRACT A method for producing insulated panels of a honeycombstructure surrounded by a frame, in which the panels are continuouslyfed below a discharging device which fills the honeycomb withpolystyrene, granular or ground waste material having insulatingproperties. Before or after filling, the honeycomb structure may beclosed by a subjacent cover board or sheet, and'an upper cover board orsheet is applied after filling, the upper and lower cover boards orsheets being adhesively bonded to the honeycomb.

1 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure O/O(//OOOOOQOOOO O O 0 o O O O O O 0 O O O OO METHOD OF PRODUCING INSULATING PANELS This invention relates tomethods of producing insulating panels, especially suitable for buildingpurposes.

Insulating boards made of polystyrene cellular plastic are very brittleand easy to break. It is therefore necessary to reinforce them by usingrelatively thick cover boards on each side of the insulating boards, sothat they can be used for instance as wall panels.

The principal object of the invention is to improve the strength of suchinsulating boards, so that thinner materials can be used as skin, forinstance thin metal plates, paper, plastic-coated fabrics, glass fibermaterials etc.

It is another object of the invention to use a honeycomb structure asreinforcement for the insulating board and to have the cells of thehoneycomb filled up with cellular plastic.

Still another object of the invention is to use as filler in the cellsground waste material having insulating properties, e.g., wood, bark,paper and cardboard.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following specification and referring to theaccompanying drawing in which apparatus for practicing the invention isdiagrammatically shown in elevatron.

In the drawing 1 is a cell structure built up of edgewise disposedstrips connected to each other at points along their length andcomprising a number of cell openings. This structure, a so calledhoneycomb structure, is placed within a surrounding frame 2, the cellopenings of the structure according to the invention being filled upwith an insulating material.

According to the method shown in the drawing the filling takes placeduring the continuous feed of the board 1,2. For this purpose a firstconveyor 3 and a second conveyor 4 are used, these conveyors forinstance being of the perforated steel band type. The boards are fed oneafter the other from the left to the right in the drawing, in whichthree such boards and part of the fourth are shown. Above the conveyor 3there is a hopper 5 for preexpanded polystyrene granulate which flowslike a falling curtain by gravity into the cell openings of thehoneycomb structure 1, when this is continuously fed by the conveyor 3.

The filled board is further fed between two steam supplying means, alower one 6 and an upper one 7, in order to heat the granulate. From theconveyor 3 the board 1,2 is transferred to the conveyor 4. Above this isa further conveyor 8.

From a lower supply roll 9 a sheet 10 of paper, plasticcoated fabric,glass fiber material, thin metal plate or material like that iswithdrawn and passes over the upper side of the conveyor 4. From anupper supply roll 11 a sheet 12 of the same or other kind of materialthan the sheet 10 is withdrawn and passes beneath the underside of theconveyor 8. Immediately after the supply rolls 9 and 11 the sheets 10and 12 pass adhesive applying means 13 and 14. The adhesive is appliedto the sides of the sheets 10 and 12 which face the boards 1,2. Thismeans that the boards during their continuous feed will be provided witha skin on each side and this skin is thereafter by means of a cuttingdevice cut ofi between each board.

The sheets 10 and 12 may have such properties in practical anddecorative respect that the board will be directly usable as a wallpanel without any following treatment, such as web coating,wall-papering or something similar. The boards can also be used asfacing panels, in such cases preferably being metal or plastic coated onthe intended outside, the coating being carried out in the way describedabove.

Two further steam supplying means, a lower one 15 and an upper one 16are placed in the vicinity of the conveyors 4 and 8 respectively inorder to bring about the final blowing and expanding of the polystyrenegranulate. Preferably the boards are thereafter transported past acooling device, not shown.

In order to have the sheets supplied evenly to the boards and keep theboards flat there is arranged below the conveyor 4 and above theconveyor 8 adjacent the feed path of the boards two series of su portrollers l 7.

By means of hydrau ic lift devices 18 the upper conveyor 8 and the steamsupplying means 7 and 16 can be adjusted to the proper level withrespect to the thickness of the board.

If plastic foam is used in the cells of the honeycomb structure theinjection can be done by means of a nozzle 19. This nozzle eliminatesthe hopper 5 and also the steam supplying means 6,7,15 and 16 arereplaced by coolers.

If it is desired to have on both sides of the honeycomb structure athicker, non-rollable board, such as a plaster wall board, a fiber boardor the like the sheets 10 and 11 are not used, if another finishing isintended. In this case the structure 1 and the frame 2 from thebeginning is provided with a lower such cover board. After the structurehas been filled with the insulating material the upper cover board isapplied.

Except cellular plastic can as filler in the honeycomb structure alsoother insulating materials can also be used as fillers in the honeycombstructure. It is also possible to use waste material having insulatingproperties, such as wood, bark, paper and cardboard, the paper andcardboard waste material otherwise often being transported to a garbagedisposal plant to be incinerated. This waste material is ground to aproper particle size and is filled into the cell openings of thestructure. In order to have this material resist the ravages of time itmay be preferred to mix into the material some sort of a preservative,for instance resin. A pressing procedure may be used to have theinsulated material better packed in the cell openings.

1 claim:

1. A method for producing insulating panels comprising a honeycombstructure surrounded by a frame, comprising feeding a plurality of saidpanels one behind the other with their frames in abutting relationshipthereby to provide a continuous panel expanse in the feed direction ofthe panels, continuously discharging insulating material into saidcontinuous panel expanse in the form of a continuously falling curtainof insulating material of a width equal to the width of the honeycombstructure thereby continuously filling said material into the cellopenings of said honeycomb structure, applying to said plurality ofpanels with their frames in abutting relationship subjacent andsuperposed covers of continuous flexible material that bridge over thejoints between the abutting frames, and severing said flexible materialbetween said frames.

